Definition

(adj.) any Fanwork that includes more than one type of media (text, image, audio, video).

Usage History

With the introduction of CD-ROMs in the 1990s, "multimedia" was used to describe the kind of content that could be loaded on these disks: a combination of text, images, audio, and video. Because of the resulting increased visibility of "multimedia", many fan communities started incorporating the general usage of the term in their fannish vocabulary.

Outside of fandom, the term exclusively refers to any project in which multiple types of media are used.[1] Within fandom, particularly on LiveJournal, the term usually has the same meaning--a fanwork that uses multiple media source types (audio, video, art, text) in its creation. Multimedia's first fandom definition -- a vid, zine, or other fanwork that uses source from many fandoms -- is also still in use.

Multimedia Fanworks

Fanworks made from multiple source types are often considered particularly inspiring. Examples include:

Some of the fanworks produced for Artword (for instance, Proof by Maverick & Politt) combined fanart and fanfiction in more integral ways than (the more common, such as in Big Bangs and Reverse Bangs) "illustration-for-a-fanfic" or "fanfic written for a fanart prompt." (SGA)

Multimedia Collections

Sometimes challenges that include requests for art, vids, and fiction such as the Pornish Pixiesfemslash challenge are termed multimedia challenges as well. A ficathon that accepts multiple types of media, may also be called a Thing-a-thon.

Another example is the OTW's project Open Doors, which is designed to give a home to various fannish projects. These may include fanworks in a variety of separate formats, as well as fanworks that themselves are multimedia, such as Missed the Saturday Dance.